Abbreviated perfume & fragrance reviews from one man's perspective

Maria Candida Gentile Syconium

WHAT I SMELL: Syconium opens with a lightly warm and slightly creamy milk and honeyed fig. The perfume is so lovely transparent that it invites you to breathe in the airy, but juicy aroma. Fig can greatly overpower a perfume, but so far, what you get here is this gauze like film of a fig that hovers over this sheer honey accord. It’s almost like walking outside and getting a whiff of a beautiful scent that wisps past your nose, but you look for the source but can’t find where it’s coming from, it just floats along in the air. After around 10 minutes, the perfume becomes a bit more waxy which gives it slightly more depth, but it continues to remain light and radiant. After another 10 minutes, the fragrance begins to project with a warmed sandalwood which beefs up the waxy and lightly sugared fig. The fig in this perfume feels very natural and not manufactured which makes it that much more inviting. The fragrance doesn’t morph as much as it builds and in the end your left with the most lush, milky and creamy fig that’s warm, soothing and comforting.

Syconium is the ripening of the fig, the best expression of what nature has to offer in the form of fruit, the richness of the flavour and of the perfume that are brought to us by a tree close to us since the earliest times. The pulp but also the milk, the peel, the scorching sun and the shadow of the great leaves.

Top notes: Honey, Milk

Heart notes: Fig

Base notes: Java Sandal Wood

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: The prettiest balcony garden with the wafting scent of the fig coming from below. It’s like your own special private secret garden; so safe and secure.

BOTTOM LINE: Syconium is one of three perfumes in the Maria Candida Gentile “Flight of the Bumblebee Collection”, along with Kitrea and Leuco. All of the creations in this collection are wonderful, but this dreamy fig creation is my favorite of the three and perfect for the coming long hot summer months.

Bone Rating: 4.5 out of possible 5 bones

Scent: Beeswax

Nose: Maria Candida Gentile

Classification: Unisex

Expense: $185 for 100 ml Eau de Parfum; but also available for $45 for the 15 ml travel size (thank you MCG for offering these smaller sizes with your perfumes!)

Wow, as a card carrying milky fig scent lover, my ears pricked up at this one. I like Bois Naufrage, Ashoka, Fig Tree…and now Syconium. What a great word, and nothing whatsoever to do with symposium, as I fear I might accidentally call this. And 4.5 bones is praise indeed.

LOL… yes, Syconium does not flow off the tongue… Actually, I kept adding in an extra N into the word, calling it Synconium for a long time. Whatever you call it, it’s lovely and light. I love Ashoka which is more exotic and which has the lovely sandalwood…. but as for other figs, this is like a breath of fresh air!